Woman Sues Eckerd Over Wrong Prescription

The tablets she was supposed to take for leg cramps were replaced mistakenly by a druggist with cardiac tablets that her doctor never prescribed.

The pills had similar names. They looked alike. But they were very different.

For about six months, said Lund, 64, of Pompano Beach, she was given Quinaglute when the pharmacy should have given her Quinamm.

``I had extreme fatigue. I had nausea and diarrhea. I was sweating. I had confusion. And I had a persistent intestinal problem,`` Lund said. ``I was very angry, and I`m still very angry that it happened.``

She visited physicians, was hospitalized and sought psychiatric treatment for her condition. Nothing helped.

``It went on and on, and no one seemed to understand,`` she said.

On April 15, Lund and her husband, Herb, superintendent of sanitation and recycling for Hollywood, sued Eckerd Drugs in Broward Circuit Court, saying the mistake brought emotional turmoil and physical illness.

``For six months, my wife was in hell,`` Herb Lund said.

Lund had taken Quinamm and quinine sulfate for two years before the problem with her medication, she said. The pills are used to relieve nighttime leg cramps.

She got the prescription filled during that time at Eckerd Drugs on Federal Highway and Northeast 62nd Street in Fort Lauderdale, the same store that later gave her the heart medicine, Belle Lund said.

The confusion started when Lund renewed her prescription for the anti-cramp medicine in April 1989. She was given new pills that looked and sounded much like the old ones.

``I thought (Quiniglute) was a generic of Quinamm,`` she said.

Herb Lund said his wife deteriorated quickly.

``She was actually bedridden. She couldn`t operate,`` he said. ``She felt she was going to pass away. She finally had to go to the hospital.``

There were other symptoms: tremors, eye pain, a stabbing sensation in her chest.

Several days in a cardiac unit at Holy Cross Hospital came up with little except a diagnosis of a chest muscle inflammation, she said.

The breakthrough came with a phone call from the pharmacist in September 1989.

``I`ll never forget this,`` Belle Lund said. ``He said, `I`ve just called our headquarters, and it`s my moral obligation as a human being and as a pharmacist to tell you you`ve been on the wrong drug.```

Lund went off the wrong drug, back on the right one and changed pharmacies.

Her condition improved, though Lund said she still suffers eye and chest pain.

An Eckerd spokesman said the company has been contacted by the Lunds` attorney.

``It seems as though the misfill came to light as the result of the pharmacist`s realizing there had been a misfill`` and notifying the patient, said Gene Ormond, Eckerd`s director of public affairs.

He declined further comment.

Robert Spector, the couple`s attorney, said the company was unwilling to do much to compensate the Lunds. ``They essentially said, `So what?` They made a very minimal offer`` of $1,500, Spector said.

Mixed-up medications are common, though it is unclear how many occur because of druggist, rather than physician, errors.

Dr. Michael Rupp, assistant professor of pharmacy administration at Indiana`s Purdue University, has studied the mistakes doctors make in prescriptions and said the Quinamm-Quinaglute confusion is one of many such problems.

``Physicians make mistakes. Pharmacists make mistakes,`` he said. ``When I look at my research on prescribing errors, the sound-alike drug problem is relatively common.``

Belle Lund said her doctors knew she was taking the cardiac pills because she listed Quiniglute during her office visits, thinking it was like Quinamm.

``And no one said, `Why are you taking a heart medication?``` she said. ``In the drug field, there should not be room for error.``

Belle Lund`s medication turned out to be bitter pills.

The tablets she was supposed to take for leg cramps were replaced mistakenly by a druggist with cardiac tablets that her doctor never prescribed.

The pills had similar names. They looked alike. But they were very different.

For about six months, said Lund, 64, of Pompano Beach, she was given Quinaglute when the pharmacy should have given her Quinamm.

``I had extreme fatigue. I had nausea and diarrhea. I was sweating. I had confusion. And I had a persistent intestinal problem,`` Lund said. ``I was very angry, and I`m still very angry that it happened.``

She visited physicians, was hospitalized and sought psychiatric treatment for her condition. Nothing helped.

``It went on and on, and no one seemed to understand,`` she said.

On April 15, Lund and her husband, Herb, superintendent of sanitation and recycling for Hollywood, sued Eckerd Drugs in Broward Circuit Court, saying the mistake brought emotional turmoil and physical illness.

``For six months, my wife was in hell,`` Herb Lund said.

Lund had taken Quinamm and quinine sulfate for two years before the problem with her medication, she said. The pills are used to relieve nighttime leg cramps.